IN FOCUS: Building a Resilient Philippines

A plethora of risks can potentially dismantle a country’s vision of sustained and inclusive growth. With overlapping risks of varied nature, the need to build multiple resilient communities has become a top priority, particularly for the Philippines—a country battered by shocks related to extreme weather events, high structural unemployment and underemployment, increasing food prices, and corruption, among others. It is no surprise, then, that state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and its partner-institutions center the celebration of the 14th Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) on “Investing in Risk Reduction for a Resilient Philippines”.

Although it became a buzzword only in the last decade, the term “resilience” originated in the 1970s in the field of ecology to refer to the ability of an ecosystem to absorb change and disturbance. Traditionally, resilience is associated with natural hazards, extreme weather events, or disasters. However, according to PIDS President Gilberto Llanto, building resilience should go beyond disaster risk reduction and management, as the Philippines has never confronted risks as interconnected and varied as they are today. || Read more >>

Highlights

PIDS named one of the world`s best think tanks anew

For the fourth consecutive year, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) has been recognized as among the world`s top think tanks.

In the 2015 Global Go To Think Tank Report and Policy Advice of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania, PIDS was included in the list of best think tanks in seven categories. More than 6,600 think tanks from 198 countries were assessed in this round.

PIDS remained the top social policy think tank in Southeast Asia and was ranked 37th among the top 100 in the world. Other think tanks from Southeast Asia that made it to this category (social policy) were Singapore`s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (41st) and Institute for Policy Studies (53rd) and Malaysia`s Center for Public Policy Studies (66th). In 2014, PIDS also ranked 37th among 50 nominated think tanks in this category.

PIDS also maintained its rankings as among the top international development think tanks (70th out of 128) and among the top education policy think tanks (33rd out of 65).

Moreover, the Institute has been included in four new categories: best think tanks in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, best government-affiliated think tanks, and think tanks with the best external relations/public engagement program. The East Asian Development Network (EADN) Secretariat, which PIDS has been running since 2010, also made it to the list of best think tank networks. The EADN is a network of institutes and centers in developing countries of East Asia. It sponsors research and capacity-building activities for early career researchers.

Featured Publications

In February 2014, the City of Manila imposed a cargo truck ban at certain hours of the day to free Manila streets from the traffic congestion brought about by huge trucks and container vans moving to and from the Port of Manila every day. At first, this seemed to be a workable solution to the perennial traffic congestion faced by Manila residents and commuters. However, the unintended consequence of this seemingly rational local ordinance led to complaints and clamor of other stakeholders for a better approach to city traffic management. The ... || Read more >>

In 2017, the special treatment in rice granted to the Philippines that allows the country to maintain its import monopoly will expire. This lifting is expected to result in massive fall in domestic prices, which will reduce farmers income. This Policy Note assesses the agricultural support options for rice farmers upon the expiration of the special treatment. It identifies decoupled payment, a form of assistance to farmers in their transition to a free market, combined with a 35-percent tariff equivalent as a possible support. Assessment shows that this compensatory transfer scheme ... || Read more >>

The third issue of DRN in 2016 drives home several insights gathered from the celebration of the 14th Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) this September. The DPRM celebration, which centered on building resilient communities, is aimed at educating policymakers and the public on the complex risk landscape confronting the Philippines. It also underscores the role of appropriate policy interventions in building the country's resilience to various economic, environmental, technological, political, and societal risks and stresses. Ergo, this DRN issue (1) deepens the discussion on resilience building in the agriculture, health, macroeconomic, and ... || Read more >>

This study assessed the performance and internal efficiency of the basic education sector through the Department of Education's Enhanced Basic Education Information System and the Philippine Statistics Authority's Annual Poverty Indicators Survey. Both the administrative system and the survey revealed improvements in school participation as a result of the investments made by the Aquino administration to the education sector, as well as the implementation of universal kindergarten and the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. However, it is apparent that some children are still being left behind in the provision of ... || Read more >>

The government established the Community Mortgage Program (CMP), which is administered by the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), to enable informal settler families (ISFs) to purchase land by providing them with affordable financing. Loans are granted to community associations (CAs) where ISFs must belong to access the CMP. Given the government's significant subsidy to the program, has the CMP been able to address the needs of the poor and their communities? Results of the assessment show the equity requirements set by the SHFC prevented poor households from becoming program beneficiaries. ... || Read more >>

One approach used by the Philippine government to support the Millennium Development Goals for water supply and sanitation is to provide grant financing to waterless communities. This Policy Note presents the main findings of a study evaluating two grant financing programs--the President's Priority Program for Water Supply and the Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig para sa Lahat. The study involved process evaluation on the effectiveness and transparency of program execution, and qualitative impact evaluation to examine if the grant programs have achieved their objectives and if the capital investments are ... || Read more >>

Road funds coming from the Motor Vehicle User's Charge (MVUC) are funds reserved for specific programs or projects. The MVUC is collected by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) from motor vehicle owners. It is imposed through the registration fees of vehicles and payment of penalties for overloading. The collections are remitted to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) under four special types of fund. Key findings from this study indicate the mismatch between the records of the LTO and the BTr on the MVUC monies. Moreso, two special funds"the Special ... || Read more >>

Building economic resilience takes center stage on this prepress version of the sixth issue of the PIDS Economic Policy Monitor (EPM). Due to overlapping shocks and risks of varied nature, there is a need to look beyond natural hazards and to acknowledge that the sources of risks are many and interconnected. Evidence points to the critical role of good policies in bolstering coping ability and in building resilient systems. In this line, this EPM presents a framework (Chapter 3) that underscores the significance of appropriate interventions by way of policies, programs, ... || Read more >>

Global value chains (GVCs) play an important role in creating a more inclusive global economy. The interconnected networks of production and services are enabling paths for small and medium enterprises to expand and grow. In a world where the costs of communication and transportation have been significantly reduced by advances in technologies, policymakers must understand how they can help local firms and industries capture and benefit from increased GVC participation. GVC success stories in various Philippine industries--tobacco, services, and electronics, among others--have evidently contributed to the country's recent positive growth ... || Read more >>

This study assesses the effectiveness of the strategy and the complementary interventions of the Sustainable Livelihood Program`s Self-Employment Assistance Kaunlaran (SLP SEA-K). The SLP SEA-K uses a microcredit strategy to provide credit access to the poor, improve the ability of the group to borrow, and enable it to engage in income-generating activities. Microcredit services are generally believed to have a positive socioeconomic impact; however, the success of projects may depend largely on the management of the program. The authors found out that the government lacks the capacity to handle ... || Read more >>

The Aquino Health Agenda of 2010 articulates succinctly the Philippine health sector's aim for universal health coverage. The agenda has three thrusts: rapid expansion of enrollment and benefit delivery using subsidies for the poorest families, improved access to quality hospitals and health-care facilities, and attainment of health-related Millennium Development Goals through additional effort and resources targeted to the most critical areas in the country. Years after the launch of the agenda, the Department of Health collaborated with key institutions to implement the Health Systems Research Management (HSRM) Project, with the Philippine ... || Read more >>

Press Releases

State think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) has outlined several recommendations to improve the design and implementation of the college scholarship grants for the children of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries.
In a forum organized by PIDS and the Congressional Planning and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) of the House of Representatives, PIDS Senior Research Fellow Aniceto Orbeta presented the findings of a PIDS study that evaluated the operational issues and impacts of the Students Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (SGP-PA).
The SGP-PA, which was introduced in 2012, has ... || Read more >>

The health of business activities in the country could be used as an indicator in assessing the country's economic performance.
In his lecture at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Dr. Nick Fontanilla, president of i-Metrics Asia-Pacific Corporation, proposed the use of the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) as a leading economic and business indicator as well as a narrowcasting tool.
The PMI reflects purchasing managers' acquisition of goods and services each month as compared to the previous month. It is based on a survey conducted monthly among a random sample ... || Read more >>

The role of global value chains (GVCs) as channels for the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was emphasized at a policy forum hosted recently by the World Bank (WB)-Philippine office and state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
"Three quarters of world trade is in intermediate goods and services," explained WB Senior Economist Olivier Cattaneo. "It's much harder [for MSMEs] to export directly than indirectly."
For the Philippines, GVC participation presents an opportunity for its leaders to improve the quality of jobs in the ... || Read more >>

Policymakers should push for an integrated approach to urban environment resilience.
This is how Dr. Marife Ballesteros, acting vice president of state think tank Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS), summarized the discussion on urban environment resilience last September 22.
"When we look at resilience, we should not merely be concerned with the sectoral aspects but with the integrated policy approach," she explained.
The said discussion was part of the Second Annual Public Policy Conference on Risks, Shocks, Building Resilience, which is the highlight of the celebration of the 14th Development ... || Read more >>

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